Rings of continuous functions and the real spectrum
by
Niels Schwartz
University of Passau, Germany

One classical topic in the study of rings of continuous functions are the prime ideals. Every result about prime ideals may be interpreted as a result about prime cones since the real spectrum is homeomorphic to the prime spectrum. The lecture will emphasize the real spectrum as a spectral space, using, in particular, constructible and proconstructible subsets. This leads to an interpretation of some well-known notions from topology, such as z-embeddedness, and topological constructions, such as the realcompactification, from a new point of view.

Date received: February 7, 2000